Cidade De Deus Wiki
CITY OF GOD "If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you." City of God ''is a 2002 Brazilian crime film co-directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katie Lund that was released in 2003. It takes after a novel of the same name authored by Paulo Lin but however the movie is also loosely based on events that took place in real life. The film follows the story of two young boys who've grown up in the brutal lifestyle of the Rio De Janiero Favela,City of God.One of the most ruthless favelas in Brazil. One of these two boys longs to escape the ruthless lifestyle and pursue his passion for photography while the other has been drawn in by the favela's crime and longs to become a crime lord. PLOT The film begins with some members of the favela preparing for a feast including skinning and cooking live chickens. One of the chickens manages to wriggle it's foot loose of the wire holding it there and flees. Lil Ze, a druglord, notices and orders for everyone to grab that chicken.Everyone takes off after it attempting to capture it. Meanwhile Rocket,the movie's main protagonist and narrator, and his best friend Stringy are walking along a street not far away discussing attempting to take photos of Lil Ze and his gang for the newspaper company he is casually working for.Even though Lil Ze is after them, Rocket is still determined to find a way to get these photos claiming that Lil Ze still has to get him first. At that moment,Lil Ze and his gang come out of an alleyway just ahead of them. Lil Ze orders Rocket to capture the chicken which is a few feet ahead of Rocket.Just as he prepares to capture it, he suddenly finds himself in between a stand off between Lil Ze's gang and a small group of policemen. The film then flashes back to Rocket's earlier years (somwhere in the 1960s). The City of God is in it's early stages and at that point consist of a small community of houses (in which it's given a more slum desert town look). Things like water are limited and electricity and gas are hard to come by. The criminal trio, ''The Tender Trio (consisting of Shaggy,Goose and Clipper), ''hold up a gas truck, distributing the gas tanks out to people of the favela. However they're forced to beat a hasty retreat after the police arrive. Rocket along with his friend shaggy are unsure of what they want to do when they get older though Shaggy shows interest in becoming a lifeguard. Meanwhile,under insistence from Lil Ze (named Lil Dice at the time), the Tender Trio decide to rob the favela's motel. They manage to get a fair amount of cash from the holdup but are forced to retreat after they hear Lil Dice shooting the window signalling incoming police. They steal a car from the motel's parking lot but find Lil Dice is nowhere in sight.After during their escape, Clipper accidentally sprains his ankles, they split up with Clipper and Goose retreating to hide in the woods and Shaggy drawing the police's attention. While Shaggy is hiding, he grows an infatuation with a girl named Bernice.At first she shows a cold attitude towards him due to his status as a criminal but eventually reciprocates the same feelings towards him.Clipper decides he no longer wants to live the criminal life and leaves to rejoin the church. Goose,after being scolded by his dad returns to selling fish alongside him and his little brother,Rocket. A few months later, the cops are still after the Tender Trio due to the deaths involved at the motel the night they held it up. When Bernice mentions it to Shaggy, he angrily denies it and claims it probably was the cops to set up him and the rest of the Tender Trio. Throughout the argument it's revealed that he's grown to resent both Clipper and Goose as he believes their conversion to more honest ways is more like them.However, Bernice informs him that she plans to leave the favela,either with or without him. Meanwhile Goose attracts and has sex with a fellow resident,much to the dismay of her husband who discovers them and angrily beats his wife to death with a shovel. While Goose is attempting to flee the favela, he comes across Lil Ze (who he discovers wasn't nabbed by the police) along with Bene. They've managed to obtain a largely considerable amount of both money and jewelry. Goose snatches some of the money and attempts to leave but is gunned down by Lil Ze Around the same time,Shaggy and Bernice are attempting to get out of the slums.They hold a resident at gunpoint and force him to drive them out of the favela. However while attempting to make their escape,Shaggy is forced to give the car a slight push to get it going. While doing this,he's chased the police who ultimately wind up gunning him down. Many years later and the City of God have drastically undergone many changes.What was once a row of houses have turned into a city-like favela (becoming more of a urban jungle.Rocket is still attending school and he and Stringy have become a part of a group of students called ''The Groovies (a group of hippie kids).He's gained a infatuation with one of the Groovie's members,Angelica,who's currently in a relationship with another member. They decide to veer away from studying for exams and spend their day at the beach. L'il Dice has grown up to become a prominent druglord in the City of God and simply longs to have control of the favela itself. While Rocket is visiting an old classmate of his,Blacky (who's since become a drug dealer), Lil Ze arrives at the apartment where Blacky lives. When called L'il Dice and asked what's going on, he denounces the name claiming his new name is Lil Ze The movie flashes back to the night of the motel, L'il Dice decides he doesn't want to miss out on the fun and shoots the window giving Tender Trio the false impression of the cops coming.L'il Dice guns down and kills all the occupants of the motel (both workers and visitors). Knowing that Shaggy would most likely denounce him when he found out about it,L'il Dice and Bene flee the favela. They both commit various acts of petty crime and theft,eventually returning to the City of God with a large amount of cash and jewelry.While they're sorting through it,they're interrupted by Goose who notices the cash and jewelry. When he goes to take some,Lil Dice protests causing Goose to slap him and telling Bene to inform his older brother,Shaggy, that hes' fleeing the favela. However as he goes to turn and leave he's called back by L'il Dice,under the pretense of Lil Di'ce giving his gun to him.L'il Dice then guns down and brutally kills him while Bene watches. L'il Dice is seeing killing various others as he gets older.During his birthday celebration where he's officially the rightful age to become a drug lord, he pulls Bene aside and expresses his desire to kill the other drug lords and take over their territory. He and Bene visit a witch doctor who blesses him,giving him his necklace and informing him that the protection he was placing on him would cease if he ever faunucate with anyone. Lil Ze and Bene begin killing off the other drug lords and taking control of their territory, all with the exception of Carrot as he's a good friend of Bene's. Lil Ze is left with only one place to take over:The apartment that's run by Blackie Skipping back to present time, Lil Ze is about to kill Blackie but he's stopped by Bene,who convinces Lil Ze to let Blackie work for them Rocket notices a gun nearby and considers killing Lil Ze to get revenge for his brother,Goose's,death years earlier.He waylays the thought and is allowed to leave after Lil Ze is convinced he's harmless and is told that he's Goose's brother. Lil Ze has since become the most prominent druglord in the City of God.His business is essentially thriving, with the city seeming in a safe state further encouraging playboys and other dealers to visit the favela. Rocket,meanwhile, has abandoned his hope of a relationship wth Angelica since she's started a relationship with Bene.He gains work at the local supermarket in an effort to save up for a particular camera.However after he has a friendly exchange with the runts ( a group of outlaw kids that perform petty crime such as robbing, holdups etc), he's fired by the manager as he believed Rocket may have been associated with them. Rocket and Stringy decide to resort to robbing someone for money.They decide to use Goose's old gun (which he had hidden in a box and was broken). They settle for robbing someone on the bus ,named Knockout Ned,despite the fact that he was also from the City of God and would likely recognize them. However they get cold feet after discovering that he had been in the army and did karate despite the fact he tells them that he's generally a peaceful man. After getting off,they try robbing a bakery but they back off after the girl in the bakery flirts with them,gives them her number and gives them free candy. While trying to discuss what they're going to do next,they're asked directions by a man attempting to make it to Sao Paulo. They decide he's the perfect candidate as "no-one cares about anyone going to Sao Paulo". While on the ride they pass by a seeming crash incident. While on the road,the man reveals he also smokes pot and Rocket rolls them a blunt. The general friendliness of the trip results in them bailing out from robbing him. Meanwhile,the cops investigating the crash find a dead women and a alive baby. Back in the City of God,the mysterious circumstances behind the crash is revealed.The dead girl is revealed to be Blackie's girlfriend. Due to a show of disrespect, he killed her and disposed of her body in the swamps near Sao Paulo. Since the cops have figured out the girl is from the favela and is cracking down on the residents there to find out what happened. This causes Lil Ze to call Blackie to the apartment where he proceeds to mercelissly beat him down,intending of killing him and having his death serve as an example to everyone else about what happens when you kill in his hood. However,Bene talks him out of it and instead banishes Blackie from the apartment and the crime gang. He announces he's going to go for a walk with Angelica. Lil Ze reminds Bene that they still need to have a conversation about what to do with Carrot.Bene simply replies that Lil Ze really needs a girlfriend. The next morning,while laying in bed, Angelica announces her intention of escaping the favela and going to live on the farm.Bene eventually agrees and sets up for a open-for-all farewell party for him and Angelica. Many residents of the favela attend this party such as members of the church, the groovies, Lil Ze and his gang,Rocket and Stringy,Knockout Ned and the Samba crew. Lil Ze attempts to ask a girl to dance, however she rejects this stating she has someone else she's dancing with already.He attempts to pull Bene away and convinces him to stay and help out with Carrot,however Bene dejects his mind already set on leaving. Going into a jealous rage,Lil Ze notices the girl he had asked to dance with dancing with Ned. He holds Ned at gunpoint and forces him to strip completely naked and start dancing to which he complies. Meanwhile, Tiago and a friend of his arrive and attempt to make a trade, his father's camera for a bag of bud.Though at first,Bene refuses as he's given up that life,he eventually agrees after Angelica points out that Rocket might love the camera. Bene trades the camera for the bag of bud and calls Rocket over presenting him the camera. Lil Ze notices and walks over snatching the camera off him which prompts a tug of war between Bene and Lil Ze for the camera. Blackie,who had been sent by Carrot to kill Bene and also saw this as a chance for avenging his honor. He witnesses the tussle between them. However as he goes to aim and fire, he accidentally shoots Bene killing him instantly. He along with all the other party-goers flee from the dance hall while a distraught Lil Ze stays back looking for the person responsible. He however mourns next to Bene's body forcing an equally devastated Angelica to leave. Blackie heads back to Carrot's hideout to inform him of the bad news. He insists on them killing Lil Ze while he's vulnerable.Carrot instead kills him for endangering his life.Lil Ze, with no-one left to keep him neutral, decides it's time to wipe out Carrot and take his territory as he believes he should have done a long time ago.He gathers a large amount of his gang and proceeds to make his way to Carrot's hideout. On the way,Lil Ze attempts to flirt with a resident passing by,but she disgustly shrugs him off.He follows her as she meets up with her boyfriend,Knockout Ned. He rapes the girl forcing Ned to watch as he does it before leaving them alive and heading off.Ned later wonders why he was left alive.Around the same time,Lil Ze wonders the exact same thing and decides to forgo killing Carrot to find and finish Ned. He arrives and calls out for Ned to come out and face them, even going as far as to call his girlfriend a slut. Ned insists on going out to confront them but is held down by his family members.His brother goes out instead hiding a kitchen knife on his person.Though he attempts to defuse Ze's hostility towards Ned,Ze affirms that he wants Ned and not his little brother and commands for his little brother to call Ned. His brother,under the pretense of obeying,turns and attempts to stab Ze only managing to stab him in the arm. Ze and the rest of his men shoot down the little brother and unleash lead on the house destroying various things in it and shooting and killing Ned's uncle.After they depart, Ned and his family mourn over Ned's little brother's death.Carrot appears and asks if Ned wants a gun in which Ned doesn't respond.However after seeing his mother come out distraught over her son's death, he finally accepts the gun. Meanwhile, Lil Ze and a small amount of his gang are hanging out in a scrapyard while Tuba tends to his arm wound sustained from being stabbed. While there,they're attacked by an enraged Ned who manages to kill one of his gang while Ze and the remaining members manages to escape.Some nearby bystanders praise him for killing a hoodlum while Rocket takes pictures from the window of Stringy's apartment which is conveniently overlooking the scrapyard. An infuriated Lil Ze sends over Steak and Fries (a young kid who was initiated into Ze's gang by killing one the runts) to negotiate a deal with Carrot; Lil Ze will retract from killing him if he hands over Knockout Ned to him. It's revealed that Ned is hiding out with Carrot in which he agrees to join their gang with one rule:they don't kill innocent people. Steak and Fries is sent off to tell the new development to Lil Ze. Carrot's gang,now being led by the combined forces of himself and Carrot,begin holding up businesses for cash to raise for the imminent war with Lil Ze's crime gang. They rob a gun store in which Ned prevents Carrot from killing the shop's clerk,reminding him of the rule. The second time around,Carrot discards the rule to save Ned from a supermarket cashier who was about to shoot him with a concealed gun. The rule at this stage has surpassed the stage of being exceptions and has essentially been discarded.This is shown while they're robbing a bank,in which Ned guns down a security guard with no hesitation. The war has took a turn for the worse, what many believed to be a war that would swiftly end in the death of Lil Ze and the rest of his crime gang instead escalated. Due to the war both crime gangs has divided the City of God and made it hard for people to maneuver through it like they used to. Citizens were,for the most part,restricted from making their way through various parts of the city. The police,eager to crack down on the City of God, began to treat innocent residents as if they had some part in the war. The war proved to be no more then a back and forward war between the two as Carrot's gang would hit Lil Ze's gang prompting the latter to retaliate.After a year,the real reason for the war had been forgotten. Many people were joining up on both sides for the smallest reasons. One of them included Tiago who joined onto Lil Ze's gang and a young kid called Otto who joined into Knockout Ned's gang to "avenge his father's death". Rocket,having had enough,goes outside of the City of God managing to score himself smalltime work with a local newspaper company delivering papers. While at the Newspaper press,through a fellow City of God resident, he gets to meet a photographer that he idolizes. Carrot,Knockout Ned and a large group of their crime gang assault the scrapyard controlled by Lil Ze and his gang who treat it as a hangout spot. Lil Ze (who was present at the time) and most of his gang retreat quickly while Carrot and his gang throw molotovs oveer the wall into the scrapyard.During the assault,Steak and Fries is killed and Knockout Ned is shot and killed by an unseen assailant who retreats.The cops arrive and arrest Knockout Ned taking him to the hospital to treat his bullet wound.While there,he's interviewed by reporters where he lements about how he's arrested yet a monster like Lil Ze is allowed to go free,allowing him to continue killing innocent people at will. Lil Ze,angry that Knockout Ned's on the front page and he isn't, decides to use the camera that Bene was to give to Rocket to take some photos of him and his gang.However when they're unable to get the camera working,Tiago comes up with the idea of getting someone who probably would know best how to use it;Rocket. Rocket manages to get some good photos of them.Lil Ze gives him a large wad of cash to get the pictures developed as well as allowing him to keep the camera as Bene had already wanted him to have it. Rocket asks his friend at the press to develop the photos but his friend denies doing it due to the risk of getting into trouble. However,Rocket's idol asks for his and rocket's films to be developed. The developed pictures are left in the lab and picked up by one of the reporters,Marina who has them put on the front page. Rocket discovers this and contronts Marina angrily.He believes that Lil Ze will become angry with the sudden publicity and will most likely come after Rocket. The situation is defused and Marina explains how when a photographer's photos are used, the newspaper agency pays that photographer. Upon finding from Rocket himself that he lives in the City killinof God, they manage to convince him to take some more photos despite the risks. Unknown to Rocket however, Lil Ze is in fact pleased with his pictures on the front page as he believes it shows everyone who the boss is.He plans to have Rocket take some more pictures of him and his gang for the papers. They equip him with a new camera and Marina agrees to let him stay at hers for the night. They smoke weed and wind up having sex finally breaking Rocket's virginity. Meanwhile at the hospital, Carrot and his gang have managed to set up a sexual encounter with the police guarding Ned and the nurse. This allows for Carrot and the rest of the gang to break Ned out of the the hospital. Despite no longer having the funds,Lil Ze calls over Charlie aka "Uncle Sam",the favela's local gun dealer. He ultimately decides to send off Charlie without the guns or any money for the guns.This however would prove to backfire as it's revealed that the gun dealer was being secretly funded by the police. They decide to kill Charlie and confront Lil Ze. Lil Ze calls the Runts to meet him and gives them all guns in exchange for their loyalty and assistance in the war with Carrot. Skip back to the beginning scene, the residents are making prepping and cooking live chickens.One of the chickens manages to escape.Lil Ze orders his gang and the runts (who's present) to chase after it. It results in a confrontation with Lil Ze and Rocket. Lil Ze orders Rocket to grab the chicken.He however finds himself in the middle of a confrontation between Lil Ze's gang and a small group of the police.The police back off and,much to Rocket's surprise, Lil Ze asks for him to take a picture of Ze and his gang. Suddenly a shot seemingly out of nowhere, killing one of Ze's men.It's revealed to be Knockout Ned who killed him and he and the rest of Carrot and his gang beggining shooting. As Rocket and Stringy take cover from the onslaught much of Lil Ze's men either scatter or else find cover and shoot back.During the shootout,Lil Ze and Tiago manages to hijack a truck and attempt to make their escape from the shootout.However Ned manages to kill Tiago,prompting Ze to shoot back mortally wounding Otto before the truck crashes knocking him unconscious. As Ned is tending to him,he's told by Carrot that Ze's crashed.As he's about to join Carrot and the rest in finishing Lil Ze, he's shot in the back by Otto, killing him instantly before he himself succumbs to his wound.It's revealed through flashback that the security guard that Ned had killed during the bank robbery was Otto's dad.Otto had joined the gang to get close to Ned with the intention of taking an opportunity to kill him.It's revealed that he was the one who had shot Ned during the scrapyard raid but had fled after failing to kill him. The police arrive in a larger force forcing carrot and his gang to instantly surrender. Lil Ze wakes up and is instantly arrested,being placed in the same police squad car as Carrot and his gang. Lil Ze is let go a short way away while Carrot and his gang is left in the squad care to be a "present for the media".Rocket runs off to "finish something off'.He manages to reach a vantage point behind the alleyway where Lil Ze's been taken. He manages to snap pictures of the occurance in front of him which is a deal in which the police take a box full of money and one of his rings as a investment while telling him to fill it up with the remaining owing. He angrily comtemplates his situation as he's joined by the runts who had escaped the shootout. They suddenly throw him to the ground and start riddling him with lead as revenge for their friend's death earlier on. With Lil Ze dead and Carrot and his gang arrested,the runts are left as the new bosses of the City of God. Rocket manages to get pictures of his death and his dead body.He contemplates whether to give in the photos of the police's dealing with Lil Ze or else the photos of his death.He ultimately decides to use the latter as the photos of the police's corrupt dealings would expose them to the rest of the country,thus causing retaliation from the law enforcement. The photo earns him a internship with the newspaper company. Meanwhile the runts begin making a list of people who they plan to kill including a police chief and the Red Brigade. CAST Alexandre Rodrigues-Rocket Seu Jorge-Knockout Ned Roberta Rodrigues Leandro Firmino-Lil Ze Alice Braga-Angelica Phellipe Haagensen-Bene Douglas Silva-L'il Dice Jonathan Haagensen-Shaggy Matheus Nachtergaele-Carrot PRODUCTION The film's production was much a product of much improvisation and use of amateur actors but Fernando Meirelles had his reasons for this. One was the lack of availability with black actors at the time and another was that using amateur actors gave the film a much more natural feel to it authentic. He opened up about how in the time when Cidade De Dues ''was in production, this here were not as many black actors as opposed to now. Workshops were setup and around 100 children were placed into acting workshops where,through some level of improvisation, they were taught various aspects of actin.For the sake of the film, these workshops mainly focused on simulation of street wars (noteably shoot-outs, hold-ups and scuffles).The aim was that the actors would learn to how to act it out naturally. ''Cidade De Deus's critical reception Cidade De Deus ''was a film success with 91 percent of it's audience giving it positive appraisal. It has managed to gain such accolades such as being in the list of '''THE 100 GREATEST FILMS OF ALL TIME '''by TIME and also Empire's 177th greatest films of all time in 2008 The film however did receive bad reviews as well. Peter Rainer from New York Times stated the film was "powerful it was also rather numbing". A Brazilian film critic criticized the fim due to how it depicted the favela and that she believed it glorified the violence and the poverty that the favela has to deal with. Even MV Bill, a Brazilian rapper who's from the City of God criticized the film's depiction of the Favela. He wrote essentially about how there's no social,human or moral beneit that's been gained from the film.His biggest issue was the depicition of the favela's youth.He stated the world would know about how the world would know of them essentially exploiting the City of God's youth to the world and that the stigma that they already know they carry is only going to increase because of the film. In light of this though the film was well recognized as evident by some of the awards they have earned further adding to the film's successful accolade. They've been nominated for the various awards with the ''Academy Awards ''such as Best Director,Best Cinematography and Best Film Editings. They've won the audience award at the ''AFI Fest ''as well as Best Foreign Film at both ''Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards, New York Film Critics Circle Awards ''and the ''Toronto Film Critics Assocation Awards. Contents Locations: -City of God (Favela) Characters: -Duscape -Ze Pequeno (Lil Ze) -Bene -Barbantinho (Stringy) Category:Browse